Organization KOD: By attacking us, the company MM System accused itself of potential environmental damage

From the non-governmental organization KOD, they said that the company MM System recognized itself by attacking them and accused itself of potential environmental damage caused to the residents of Straševina and Gračanica by dumping grit outside the permits of the Municipality of Nikšić, which is why the Municipality filed a report against this company. KOD said that they had not dealt with that company before, nor was it the subject of their interest.

"We remind the public that five days ago we announced that analyzes of soil whose samples were submitted to us by locals from two locations in Nikšić showed that as a result of the disposal of grit in the land where the grit was buried, values ​​of heavy metals were found that many times exceed the permitted values ​​of the same in the soil. The maximum permissible concentration of chromium was exceeded by nearly 300 times, and lead by up to 4,6 times.

Citizens visually documented the taking of samples from two locations, which they submitted to our organization. We then took the same samples to the Institute for Public Health for analysis. We made the public aware of the results of the analysis, without naming any legal entity, because our primary goal is to investigate and point out the violation of the right to a healthy environment, regardless of who specifically violates that right," the statement from the KOD organization states.

It is added that as a reaction to this fact, the MM System company states that this is aimed at discrediting, as they state, their entire previous work, making it clear that it is their priority in this story.

"Additionally, they state that 'if the aforementioned NGO really wanted to make sure of the correctness of what is an undeniable fact, i.e. that the material, colloquially called 'grit', is harmless, why didn't it contact us?", which shows a lack of understanding that they are not above the institutions and the situation on the ground should be determined by the institutions, not the economic entity that should be the subject of supervision and control a healthy environment", emphasized KOD.

They say that MM System's criminal complaint against the people from the Public Health Institute shows all the senselessness of their legal actions in this case.

"Namely, we are talking about people who professionally and professionally performed the analysis of the submitted samples, and what they are obliged to do when someone submits to them, and in the very report that we published it is stated that the responsibility for sampling in this case lies with the applicant for sampling and the one who submits a sample for analysis. Therefore, they receive a criminal complaint because they did their job. The KOD organization specifically calls on the competent authorities to protect the employees of the Public Health Institute, who, we emphasize, did their job professionally," the KOD organization states.

At the same time, they asked the authorities to determine whether other competent institutions acted in this case in a timely manner and as required by law.

"After the self-recognition of the MM System company and the criminal complaint against KOD, in the coming period we will investigate the motives of this act and introduce them to the public in connection with the behavior of the MM System company in the case of depositing this waste in the vicinity of Nikšić. In this process, in accordance with by law to invite inspections and competent authorities to investigate all aspects of this case with only one goal: to protect the health of citizens and the environment, which have been our sole motives from the beginning," the KOD statement concludes.